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Indicators of your Perl skill

by kiat (Vicar)
on Jan 09, 2005 at 03:52 UTC ( [id://420629]=perlmeditation: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Hi monks,

If your Perl skill can placed into Amateur, Intermediate and Advanced levels, how would you know where you Perl skill level is? It's probably obvious in some cases but are there indicators to help you determine whether you've progressed beyond the Amaterish level and so forth?

Reading I present to you... Horrible code!, I get the sense that that sort of code is the result of two things: first, not knowing enough Perl ways and second, not knowing enough programming techniques (e.g. refactoring).

There must be some Perl constructs or syntax that is considered more advanced. What are those? OOP is considered an Advanced Topic in Programming Perl, so does not using OOP imply an Amateurish level of Perl knowledge?

Thanks in anticipation for reading and sharing :)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by brian_d_foy (Abbot) on Jan 09, 2005 at 07:35 UTC

    Beginner: You realize you don't know a lot of Perl, but you muddle through and get the job done. You ask questions about Perl.

    Intermediate: You think you know a lot of Perl, and you muddle through and get the job done. You answer questions about Perl.

    Advanced: You realize you don't know a lot of Perl, but you get the job done. You ask questions about programming.

    {wink}

    --
    brian d foy <bdfoy@cpan.org>
      Hm...I note with interest that both the beginner and the advanced person realise they don't know a lot of Perl.
        That principle is represented in a few Zen koans that I recall from my earlier days. It does seem consistent that every person goes through a period in their learning process where they think they know more than they actually know. They exit that phase towards proper mastery only by realizing they know far less than what there is to know.

        In the online world, this "middle category" manifests as the "helper who gets constantly corrected". I think we've seen a few of those here, and certainly on Usenet, and definitely on some of the Perl mailing lists.

        -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
        Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

        kiat, first, great thread. Secondly, it seems that no matter what discipline you are engaged in, the more you know about it, the more you know how much more there is to know (whew!).

        When I first starting writing Perl, I wouldn't have recognized good Perl code if it bit me on the butt. But experience, and lurking around the Monastery, have at least helped me to recognize the better practices, even if I'm not there myself. It's a bit like sitting in a plane before take-off. Everything in the distance seems a single horizontal line, but as you climb you realize the depth and complexity of what lies beyond.


        —Brad
        "Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up." G. K. Chesterton
Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by daddyefsacks (Pilgrim) on Jan 09, 2005 at 05:04 UTC

    I think I'll just always consider myself an amateur, (unless I'm working on my resume, in which case isn't everyone advanced? :)) After all, if theres only three levels, I'll never be just two levels below someone like merlyn no matter what skill set each level encompasses.

    Although I don't know or care exactly what level I truly am, I do know that I can look back on code I've written not even a month prior and improve readability/maintainability/elegance etc... based on new concepts I've picked up. This confirms that I'm still learning and that's what matters.

    As far as the code in I present to you... Horrible code! that node has almost nothing to do with lack of Perl knowledge and everything to do with lack of general programming knowledge. A complete Perl newbie with a good programming background would never have written such poorly laid out code even if they were his first lines of Perl.

    OOP is considered an Advanced Topic in Perl Programming, so does not using OOP imply an Amateurish level of Perl knowledge?

    Not using OOP doesn't imply an amateurish level of Perl knowledge at all, trust me I've seen some pretty amateurish OO code. Perhaps not knowing when to use OOP and when not to implies an amateurish knowledge of OOP however.

Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by Mr. Muskrat (Canon) on Jan 09, 2005 at 04:37 UTC

    Have you advanced past only using scalars and arrays and tried hashes? Have you learned what a reference is, how to create and dereference one? Have you started creating advanced data structures (AoA, AoH, HoA, HoH, etc)? Have you created a module? Used OO? Used AUTOLOAD? Mucked with the symbol table? Discovered B::? Actually used it for something useful? Delved into the perlguts? There are many different ways to measure your growth as a Perl programmer.

Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by gaal (Parson) on Jan 09, 2005 at 06:34 UTC
    Anything can be placed in arbitrary groupings :)

    If you feel the need for rankings, though, you might like Seven Stages of a Perl Programmer, which is intended to be instructive. It needed more than twice the granularity, because Perl is such a large language.

      If you feel the need for rankings, though, you might like Seven Stages of a Perl Programmer, which is intended to be instructive. It needed more than twice the granularity, because Perl is such a large language.
      Interesting levels with their indicators.
Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by Juerd (Abbot) on Jan 10, 2005 at 12:49 UTC

    Copied from http://juerd.nl/site.plp/perladvice:

    Here is an incomplete list of things that you will need to understand:

    • An object is a reference to a blessed variable.
    • A list is not the same as an array.
    • There are three main contexts: void context, scalar context and list context.
    • Things are named or anonymous.
    • The language is Perl, the implementation is perl. Never write PERL.
    • There are different operators for strings and numbers.
    • Some operators perform short circuit logical operations, and these have high and low precedence versions.
    • There are lexical variables, package global variables and package global variables that are always in the main namespace.
    • Parameters are expected, arguments are passed.
    • An operator is either a unary, binary or ternary operator, or a list operator.
    • A statement consists of one or more expressions.
    • You can use alternative delimiters to avoid the leaning toothpick syndrome.

    If you understand all this, you have reached at least the level that I think is the absolute minimum required for you to call yourself a "Perl programmer".

    Juerd # { site => 'juerd.nl', plp_site => 'plp.juerd.nl', do_not_use => 'spamtrap' }

      Thanks, Juerd :) It's a pretty reasonable list.
Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by bluto (Curate) on Jan 10, 2005 at 17:15 UTC
    OOP is considered an Advanced Topic in Programming Perl, so does not using OOP imply an Amateurish level of Perl knowledge?

    No. I think you are confusing Perl knowledge with wisdom. I've been programming for about 30 years and only learned Perl and OOP in the last 5 or so. The first Perl programs I wrote were non-OOP C-like code, with gastly things like global variables (horrors), but strangely enough they worked and they were solid in production. I've learned a lot since then (OOP, Perl idioms, etc), and I don't write Perl code like that anymore, but I wouldn't call non-OOP usage either Amateurish or Novice level.

    A novice is someone that uses what they already know to help them in a new field, knowing they will need to learn more, try new things and that they will make mistakes that will need correcting. An amateur is someone who uses the latest shiny tool (e.g. OOP) when it is inappropriate for the problem at hand, and doesn't suspect a thing.

      I like the way you distinguish between a novice and an amateur :)
Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by KeighleHawk (Scribe) on Jan 10, 2005 at 20:52 UTC
    The only true knowledge consists in knowing that you know nothing... (credited to Socrates by Bill and Ted) :-)

    I am tempted to expand on what a few already alluded too in that you should not confuse Perl mastery and Programming mastery. A complete and in-depth knowledge of a hammer does not make you a master home builder. The reverse is of course also true, if you decide to switch from that old fashioned hammer to an air powered nail gun. You should give fair warning to those looking to you for guidence to take cover for a few minutes...

    However, it depends on your purpose for the ranking. If you want to screen someone for a job the two become (potentially) more closely related since you are wanting to pay someone to make practical use of those tools.

    On the other hand (am I up to three hands yet?) you may still be better served to keep the two questions distinct and seperate. Doing so will tell you what training you really need in order to improve your skills. It doesn't do you any good to buy the GoF book on Patterns and let it sit on the shelf for three years (like mine has) if you are not ready for it. But if Perl itself is no longer offering you anything new to learn, perhaps some general books on design and development methodologies might be what gives your code that next big boost.

Re: Indicators of your Perl skill
by Mutant (Priest) on Jan 10, 2005 at 11:01 UTC

    I definitely don't think it can be split into three levels... and after a certain point, Perl skill doesn't even fit into coherent levels, as people become specialised in certain areas.

    I think the great thing about Perl (and maybe programming in general) is that the more you learn, the more you realise there is to learn. In that sense, the whole 'Monk' analogy is very apt. True mastery takes a lifetime (or more).

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